48 
REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. 
Feb., 1891. 
of poor, stunted, and deformed appearance. A small space only 
should be selected for work ; a hundred yards of a railway or canal 
bank carefully worked will yield more specimens than miles of 
country carelessly looked over. The different plants and their 
parasites found in a ramble by water-courses and in fields and woods 
were described. Having gathered the crop, it remains to take 
the microscope and work out the specimens. Polymorphism, or the 
appearance of a fungus under several forms, complicated the subject. 
The writer gave a description of these forms, and the promycelium- 
spores, secidiospores, uredospores, and teleutospores. There yet 
remained much to be done in working out the mysteries of the 
reproduction of these plants, and there was an abundant harvest for 
each worker. They do not have the beauty of flowering plants, but 
are a link in the chain that binds together the attractions of vegetable 
life. The paper was illustrated by an herbarium, diagrams, and a 
large series of microscopical preparations.—Dec. 1st. Mr. G. H. 
Corbett exhibited a large and interesting collection of minerals ; Mr. 
J. Madison, seven specimens of Helix aspersa, showing various 
markings, all bred in confinement from a single pair.—Dec. 8th. Mr. 
Thompson read a paper on “ Charles Darwin.” The writer gave a 
sketch of the ancestry and early days of this distinguished writer, but 
the greater part of the paper was devoted to the theories of natural 
selection, development, and the survival of the fittest, subjects that 
were brought into general prominence by this illustrious man.—Dec. 
15th. Mr. Cracroft gave a lecture on “A Ramble through North 
Wales.” The lecture was particularly interesting from the manner in 
which it was illustrated by photographs of the beautiful scenery. 
The pictures of erratic boulders and glaciated rocks in the neighbour¬ 
hood of Llanberis were much admired.—Dec. 22nd. Mr. J. Collins 
exhibited a series of plants collected during the visit of the Yesey Club 
to Norway.—January oth. Mr. J. Collins exhibited a collection of 
herbarium specimens of the natural orders Primulacese, Coniferae, and 
Amentaceae; Mr. G. H. Corbett, a collection of butterflies from India. 
Under the microscope, Mr. J. W. Neville, sections through floral 
organs, showing all the parts in situ .—January 12th. Mr. J. Betteridge 
presented to the society's cabinet specimens of Red-backed Shrike, 
Lanius colluris , and Starling, Sturnus vulgaris, the latter in transition 
plumage. Mr. Matley then read a paper on “Heredity.” The 
writer said his object in reading this paper was to introduce the views 
that had been advanced on this subject, in the hope that further 
attention might be turned to it. The three factors that established 
the theory of natural selection, variation, heredity, and the struggle 
for existence, were carefully expounded. The writer said it was 
difficult to tell whether a parent transmitted to its offspring the 
character it inherited or the one acquired in life. All organisms begin 
life as a single cell, a body was a republic of cells. Germ-cells and 
body-cells were described, and the theory that, by the process of germ- 
cells breaking away and becoming body-cells, acquired characters were 
transmitted. The theory of the intimate connection between the two 
cells and the gemmules supposed to come from the body-cell to the 
germ-cell explained much vte meet with in heredity, but its difficulty 
was its complexity. The writer reviewed at some length the con¬ 
tinuity theory of Professor Weismann, and explained how, through 
defective division of the ova, monstrosities were formed, and how the 
heredity of disease was the result of the inoculation of the germ-cell. 
In conclusion, the writer said the gist of the whole matter is this, that 
if the competition of life is less keen, we grow more degenerate, as 
there is no struggle that keeps alive the nobler attributes of humanity. 
A discussion closed the meeting. 
